The goal for each of the pop-up techniques was to test the formal, structural and material potential of folding a piece of flat formwork into a final form. The unique quality of pop-up is there is very little formwork needed, the material maintains strength (unlike concrete for 3d printing), and complex geometries can be achieved with dynamic formworks that can move in time and space to create multiple forms and variations with a singular formwork.

This first set of design forms are a proof of concept for achieving a ‘pop-up’ strategy for each formwork technique and the necessary concrete material alterations to achieve the desired final form. Each series of formwork and formal output tests began with a dynamic computational strategy in grasshopper in order to adjust scale, proportion, thickness, etc. of the form and formwork throughout the process. The future goals are to use this information to communicate with robotic arms that bring more precision to the construction process. The dynamic nature of the flat formwork to bend into many different forms and angles means there is a capability to achieve varied and dynamic structural forms using one adjustable formwork.

This is one of the first tests we did for Pop-Up. The material is poured on a sheet of thin metal with cuts in the surface. And then, using cables, the surface is stretched to deform and create voids as the metal sheet is pulled. We tried a series of operations initially with plastic, vinyl, and then metal, which rendered the most control in how the final form looked.